The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development was
created to meet the sustainable development needs of the
planet, but it is now moving down the same road as the neo-
liberal policies of the World Trade Organisation. We call
upon UNCTAD to get back on track and support People´s Food
Sovereignty.

A Call for Action against WTO agreements that destroy
peasant based agriculture and lead to corporate-controlled
de-industrialisation in the South and further privatisation
of public services and natural resources worldwide!

The United States and the European Union are again trying
to bully their agenda through in July and force other
countries further down the way of market liberalisation and
privatisation.

We call upon social movements and other Civil Society
organisations to raise their voices and demand their
governments stop WTO negotiations that lead to further
market liberalisation, destruction of peasant based
agriculture and privatisation of land, water and genetic
resources.

We call upon organizations to demand that their governments
support:

- food sovereignty instead of export cash crops for
international trade;

- access for peasants and small farmers to productive
resources;

- policies to stop overproduction and dumping;

- access to domestic markets for local peasant producers
instead of multinationals; and,

- peasant based production for domestic needs instead of
subsidies for export dumping.

WTO negotiations must stop! Governments must develop
frameworks that protect local economies, small scale food
producers and distribution systems. Agriculture must be
discussed in more a appropriate forum than the WTO. The WTO
treats agriculture as a commodity, but it is a livelihood,
a culture and a human right. The following immediate steps
must be taken to protect domestic peasant based production
and to stop export dumping:

-The pressure, especially on developing countries, to
lower tariffs must end;

-The obligation of minimal market access must be
eliminated;

-The "Singapore Issues" must be removed from the ambit of
the WTO;

-All forms of direct and indirect export subsidisation
should be eliminated;

-The US' and EU's should stop their bullying tactics to
ensure control for their multinational corporations world
wide over agriculture and production; and,

-Current discussions related to plurilateral agreements on
investment and competition (two of the "Singapore
issues") must be halted.

Governments must take immediate measures to remove food and
agriculture from the WTO. Food and agriculture must not be
subject to horse-trading. International rules promoting
food sovereignty should be in a more appropriate
alternative international framework that ensures:

-The ban of any form of public support if used to export
at prices under the costs of production.

-The right to protect domestic food production against low
priced imports through the application of tariffs and
import quotas.

-The ban of all genetically modified organisms.

-A legal international instrument to curb dumping. At the
international level, price control and supply management
mechanisms (as in the former UNCTAD commodity agreements)
must be reinstated to ensure that countries can maintain
internal price levels that cover the costs of production
and guarantee that small farmers and peasants are paid a
fair price for their work.

-A genuine agrarian reform; this is especially crucial in
developing countries to reduce poverty and ensure secure
livelihoods for landless people.